Canadian paper: Burgas attack was a 'family affair'

'National Post' says the culprits of Burgas bombing that killed 5 Israelis, bus driver are related, and one grew up in Vancouver.

Bulgaria bus bomb 390.
(photo credit:REUTERS)

Two of the three suspected Hezbollah operatives accused by Bulgaria’s government of killing five Israelis and a Bulgarian national have familial ties. The Canadian daily National Post reported on Tuesday that a Canadian, who is believed to have participated in the bombing of an Israeli tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, “is a relative of the unidentified terrorist who died while planting the explosives.”

According to the National Post article, DNA testing confirmed that the terror attack in Burgas Airport “ was a family affair, but officials have not determined whether the bomb carrier who died was also a Canadian citizen.”

Several weeks after the July 18 bombing attack, investigators located the Canadian’s fake driver’s license in Bulgaria near the southern border of Romania where the two suspects fled.

DNA genetic evidence taken from the driver’s license confirmed a family connection with the DNA of the dead suspected terrorist at the Burgas airport.

The Bulgarian inquiry revealed last week that Canadian and Australian citizens launched the terror attack. In his investigatory announcement last week in Sofia, Bulgarian interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov’s said of the Canadian and Australian, “We have established that the two were members of the militant wing of Hezbollah,” adding, “There is data showing the financing and connection between Hezbollah and the two suspects.”

The Australian lived in Lebanon since 2006 and the Canadian resided in Lebanon since 2010. It is unclear if the men still are in Lebanon. Bulgarian authorities delivered the names of the two suspects to the EU's police authority—Europol—on Tuesday. The real names of the suspects have not been publicly disclosed. Tsvetanov said he wished that Europol would follow through with "a thorough check and analysis"

The National Post wrote that the Canadian has “at least one brother who is also a Canadian citizen but there has been no indication he was involved.” The Canadian involved has dual passports—Lebanese and Canada—and resided in the western Canadian city of Vancouver until his twelfth year. He returned to Lebanon as an adolescent.

The National Post wrote that “the Australian was the suspected bomb maker and had received money transfers from Hezbollah.”

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